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Review Of The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains By Nicholas Carr

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The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains is a non-fiction book written by American writer Nicholas Carr published in 2010. The book follows Carr’s argument that the invention of new technology leads the networking of the brain to significantly change, lowering our attention span and concentration. Carr’s novel became a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. Carr utilizes chapter two of his book to explore the history of theories of the brain relating to the topic of brain plasticity. He starts the chapter by introducing Friedrich Nietzsche, who suffered various health problems relating to an incident where he fell off a horse. Due to impending blindness as a result of the incident, Nietzsche purchased a Malling-Hansen …show more content…

Carr also mentions neurologist Sigmund Freud to reveal his newfound theory that the brain consists of many separate cells through his experiments with the nervous systems of fish. His theory at the time was unusual compared to the normal scientific beliefs, however eventually other scientists confirmed his theory, discovering later about neurons and their appendages which consist of axons and dendrites, and also the flow of neurotransmitters across various synapses of the brain. Carr continues onto the progression of scientist’s theories of the extent of brain change. Formerly, neurologists and biologists perceived that the brain was only malleable during childhood and stopped when they hit their adult years, and only a few argued that the adult brain could still continue to grow. Biologist J.Z. Young argued the brain constantly adapted to new situations; Psychologist William James argued the brain could change to a structure that was different than it was previously. However, individuals such as Ramon y Cajal and Rene Descartes embraced the argument that the brain was

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Is Google Making Us Stupid? Throughout Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, he goes over what he believes the internet is doing to our brains, and why it may be bad. To begin, Carr describes that he himself had felt that something in his brain was changing. He felt a significant change is his thinking, reasoning, and concentration skills, especially when it came to reading.

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Therefore, I believe in Nicholas Carr’s intentions of his article and agree upon what he is stating. Nicholas Carr feels as if someone has rewired his brain. His brain isn’t thinking the way it use to think and he strongly feels it when he reads. He was able to read for hours through long stretches of prose but over the years that has changed. (Carr, 557) Nicholas’s concentration now starts to fade after reading just two or three pages.

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330 Words | 2 Pages

In the essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, Nicholas Carr expresses his concern that the internet could be negatively affecting the way people think. He begins to argue his point by explaining his own issues of not being able to immerse himself in a book like he could before. Carr then reveals his suspicion that it’s the internet’s fault, and supports that by comparing his own experience to others. Reading is a common hobby for most of the people Carr compares experiences with. Like Carr, they found it difficult to read longer pieces of writing, and some blame the internet as well.

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He attempts to show us in his essay how our minds have changed due to the use of the Internet. Summary Nicholas Carr examines in an essay how digital technology affects our intelligence. Nicholas was educated at Dartmouth and Harvard and is a member of Encyclopedia Britannica’s editorial board of advisors. He has written a book name “The Big Switch: Rewiring the World from

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Carr says that the internet is the reason behind this, especially for him as a writer. He states that the internet makes research much easier and it has been a “godsend to him as a writer.” He argues that internet use affects cognition and how it is becoming everything that we

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683 Words | 3 Pages

Google made me stupid because I googled all the test answers and failed my test. Nicholas Carr, an American author, wrote “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” published in 2008 in The Atlantic, and he argues about the effects of the Internet on literacy, cognition, and culture. Carr starts his argument by taking an ending scene from a movie called A Space Odyssey. Carr uses logos throughout the whole essay, but also gives himself credibility by giving evidence that he knows what is going on in his mind. I feel that this argument is effective.

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942 Words | 4 Pages

In the article Is Google Making Us Stupid?, Nicholas Carr asserts his claim that the Internet might have negative effects on cognition, potentially tapering with our capacity for concentration and contemplation, therefore making us incapable of holding a long attention span especially while reading a lengthy text. In short, Carr is trying to argue that the Internet has shaped our way of thinking and attentiveness. Though technology may have changed our way of thinking, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we are unable to understand and make connections with long texts. At one point in his article, Carr quotes James Olds as saying, “The brain has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions.”

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164 Words | 1 Pages

In addition, the divisibility argument does not account for various other factors including diseases of the brain or psychological disorders such as multiple personality disorder. Modern science has shown that contrary to Descartes' divisibility argument, when a part of the brain is removed a part of the mind gets impacted. Although these effects are not evident when an arm or a leg is cut off, there is evidence which supports the idea that when a certain part of the brain, such as the frontal lobe is removed, the consequences result in severe impairment in their personality as well as their ability to reason. Furthermore Studies on the brain have shown that a disease in the brain can affect mind processes, in particular Alzheimer's disease

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Nicholas Carr in The Shallows (2010) asserts that the internet is changing the very way people live today. Carr supports this assertion by providing key points of how the Internet changed so much like how he did in this quote “With the exception of alphabets and number systems, the Net may well be the single most powerful mind-altering technology that has ever come into general use. At the very least, it’s the most powerful that has come along since the book” (Carr, 2010, pg.118). The writer concludes that everyday life in the modern age includes the use of the Internet. The writer establishes a direct tone to readers that the way people think is changing due to the Internet.

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In The Shallows, Nicholas Carr discusses the internet’s effect on human thought. This is perfectly shown in Chapter Nine which is titled “Search, Memory.” Carr speaks on how the internet effects long term memory. The chapter quotes one of the smartest minds in the history of Western Civilization, Socrates. Socrates is quoted, “Writing down their thoughts and reading the thoughts of others had written down, they become less dependent on the contents of their own memory.”

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Rhetorical Analysis In the article “Is Google Making us Stupid?”, author Nicholas Carr expresses his idea that the internet is taking over society and our thinking process. Google is affecting our abilities to read books, longer articles, and even older writings. Carr believes that we have become so accustomed to the ways of the internet, and we are relying on Google 's ability to sort through the details for us so we don 't have to, in order to get the information we find necessary more efficiently. He finds that this process has become almost too handy, and that it is corrupting us from becoming better educated.

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251 Words | 2 Pages

I really enjoyed the article that I picked from national geographic called Secrets of the brain by Carl Zimmer. What was the motivation that led to the discovery? Scientists were interested to learn more about the brain. The brain is the least understood organ in the body and we still don't know very much about how it works. They compared people's brains, mice brains, and others through scans, and dissection.

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248 Words | 1 Pages

For my enrichment choice this week I chose the article “Secrets of the Brain” By Carl Zimmer. In this article it goes over how far science has come in the knowledge of how the brain works, and also how this knowledge can help in many different ways. In the beginning ancient physicians believed that the brain was made of phlegm. In the 17th century a British physician by the name of Thomas Willis discovered that there was custard like tissue in the brain, and in this tissue was where our mental world existed.

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He starts his argument by telling us the effect the internet has had on him and others he has come across. The internet has changed his train of thought and his ability to focus and concentrate. He believes our brains have been reprogramed over time to adjust to the speed and convenience of the internet. Our ability to retain and digest traditional media has also been compromised since we are used to receiving information so rapidly. This is a strong opening argument for his essay.

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1590 Words | 7 Pages

Psychoanalytic Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is reflected as the forefathers of psychology and founder of psychoanalysis. Based on Freud’s theories, psychoanalytic therapy is a type of treatment that tends to observe at the background from early childhood to perceive if these situations have affected the individual’s life, or to current issues. (Counselling Directory, 2014) This therapy discovers how the unconscious mind empowers thoughts and behaviors, with the purpose of offering insight and resolution to the person seeking therapy. This form of therapy is a long-term treatment whereby it can take duration up to weeks, months or even years depending on the complexity of the patient being explored.

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